The Shame of the Senate's Republicans

Seventy-five percent of Republican members of the United States Senate have dropped “the other shoe.” (The “first shoe” is the Birthers fight over the qualification of Barak Obama to be president.) Obviously the Grand Old Party and its supporters refuses to recognize the fact that in the very near future “white America” will be in the minority and people of color will be the major political force in the country. If they continue down this un-American and un-patriotic path they are writing their own obituary as a national party and greatly harm our country’s two party system.

The negative action that thirty-one Republican senators took during the confirmation vote of President Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor shows their very ignorance of this population shift. They have shown that ideology is more important than qualification, and anyone “different” than us (race or ethnicity) is not acceptable to be a member of the Supreme Court. Florida Republican Mel Martinez, who announced his support of Judge Sotomayor, said it best, “We have allowed ideology to hold a preeminent role as opposed to qualifications. I find it very, very appalling.” He stood up and spoke for confirmation as opposed to his fellow Republicans and radio and talk show bigots who shouted unceasingly for defeat of the nomination. Even the well respected presidential hopeful “hero” member of the Senate, John McCain brought shame upon himself, stating “There is no doubt that Judge Sotomayor has the professional background and qualifications one hopes for in a Supreme Court nominee.” He nonetheless voted against Sotomayor because she was an “activist judge who strayed beyond the rule of law.” I don’t remember this war hero of a senator objecting to the activism shown by the high court when it halted the vote count in Florida that made George W. Bush president. Guess he means that the dirty word “activism” only comes into play when the decision is not in your favor.
Have we reached the point in our judicial history that does not allow anyone from being affected by their upbringing and experience in life? Must they not be from a minority of any kind because they might understand what it is like to be a member of any minority that has a history of being downtrodden? Should we now exclude African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Catholics, Jews, etc? What would make anyone acceptable to the 31 GOP Senators who voted against Judge Sotomayor? Maybe we should invent a machine that would make every decision for the Supreme Court and would eliminate any knowledge, feelings and humanity and do away with “activism.” Is that what they want to turn our country into? After all, no human being could pass the litmus test that is now being applied by the members of the United States Senate, who couldn’t pass the tests they obviously want to apply to court nominees.